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Saturday, March 7, 2015

Do You Have 13 Minutes For Your Families?

We do a weekly video newsletter at my school. No one was reading my paper newsletter, and they were not reading it went I sent it by email either. How do I know this? Parents actually told me this. I spent at least an hour typing and editing and formatting and all of those other things you do to make a newsletter look great. I was doing it because that is what has always been done. That was what was expected.

I could not get over the fact that I was essentially wasting an hour producing something that no one was consuming. Well the garbage cans were consuming them and so were the bottoms of lockers. About two years ago I decided to change the medium of my newsletter. It was time for the Video Newsletter.

Each week, several students and I shoot a video newsletter. It is usually between 2-3 minutes in length. As I am walking around the building, I take some photos, and use iMovie to put it all together.

I am frequently asked the following question: That must take a great deal of time, how long do you spend making it? Until this morning, I never timed the process. My response was usually "Not very long at all." Well this morning I have my answer. Thirteen minutes. That includes using the green screen app, moving it to iMovie, and pressing the button to upload it to YouTube and our Facebook page. Thirteen minutes to engage our families. Thirteen minutes to make sure our message and story is being consumed by people, not just the bottom of lockers. Thirteen minutes. Do you have 13 minutes for your families?